A rain surplus…can it really be?

The year is young, but Monday's rain left us with a rainfall SURPLUS on the Grand Strand!

I better type fast, because the rainfall surplus I'm referring to is VERY small, yet a surplus nonetheless!

Here's the latest on how we are doing so far this year as of 2/19/2008...

Myrtle Beach: +0.15"
Florence: -0.80"
Lumberton: -1.91"

And while we are still carrying a deficit in the Pee Dee up into North Carolina, don't get too caught up in the numbers. The recent rains went a LONG way toward helping our agricultural drought even if it wasn't enough to completely fill up our lakes. On the other hand, we had big rainfall deficits across the area last year and even the year before, so we still need much, much rain over the coming months to completely catch up.

There is good news on the horizon though. A storm system is beginning to develop back in west Texas and will likely bring us another dose of significant rainfall late Thursday and especially during the day Friday. If we play our cards right, we could virtually eliminate our 2008 rainfall deficits by the weekend.

Now wouldn't that be some good news?!? So cross your fingers and I'll cross mine. Heck, I may even do a little rain dance for good measure! That would certainly be funny, even if it didn't actually work! grin

Posted by on 02/20 at 07:37 AM

I hope I am around if you start dancing in the newsroom smile

Posted by  on  02/20  at  08:01 AM

What does the long term forecast look like?
Any thoughts on what to expect beyond April.
Last year was horrible. No water at all in the Little Pee Dee. Think we might have a shot at seeing the river at a normal level throughout the summer?

Posted by  on  02/20  at  09:35 AM

Unfortunately, the long term forecast still calls for the current La Nina pattern to continue.  La Nina is the opposite of El Nino and typically brings drier than normal conditions to much of the Southeast including Eastern Carolina. 

That said, we seem to be in a pattern of getting a new storm system every 4 or 5 days and trend is expected to continue for the next couple of weeks.  All we can hope for is to build up a nice surplus over the coming weeks so that we have a little bit of a cushion when the potentially hot and dry summer season arrives.

Posted by  on  02/28  at  08:11 AM

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